Culture of in vitro mouse embryos with vitamin E improves development

Abstract

To investigate the effects of vitamin E on the in vitro development of mouse embryos from 1-cell to blastocysts, embryos were cultured in two media, Brinster's BMOCIII and BMOCIII supplemented with 100 μM vitamin E (BMOCIIIvitE). The incorporation and oxidation of glucose were also compared between the embryos cultured in these media. Both the number of embryos that developed to the 1-cell stage and to the blastocyst stage were much larger for BMOCIIIvitE than BMOCIII. No significant differences in the incorporation of 14C-glucose or in the oxidation of 14Cglucose were found between the 2-cell embryos incubated in BMOCIIIvitE and BMOCIII. On the other hand, the incorporation and oxidation rates of 14C-glucose were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the embryos cultured in BMOCIIIvitE compared with those in BMOCIII at the blastocyst stage. These findings indicate that vitamin E has a beneficial effect on embryo development in mice, perhaps through protecting the cells from oxygen radicals in vitro.